10 questions for Roger Clemens. Canseco sequel coming.

1. You have described Brian McNamee as someone at the “top of the list” of trainers with whom you have worked for the better part of a decade. What possible motive would he have to link you with steroids and human growth hormone?

2. If you were in McNamee’s position, would you lie to federal investigators, knowing that you were risking jail time if you did?

3. Why would McNamee have told the truth about another of his clients, Andy Pettitte, and lied about you?

4. How widespread do you believe the use of performance-enhancing substances to be in major league baseball, and why didn’t you, as one of the elite stars of the game, lobby your union to do more to create a level playing field, if you weren’t among the cheaters?

5. Given your one-time regard for McNamee as a trainer and friend, do you approve of the efforts of your lawyer, Rusty Hardin, to do whatever he can to discredit McNamee, even if it means impugning his reputation?

6. In a 2005 interview with the Houston Chronicle, you said: “I’m going to find anything I can that’ll make me stronger and allow me to keep up with the 20-year-olds, but I’m going to depend on physicians to tell me what’s OK.” If you were willing to try “anything” to give you an edge, why should we believe that didn’t include performance-enhancing substances?

7. Your sons are athletic; your oldest son is a professional ballplayer. What do you say to your sons about the charges in the Mitchell Report and what they have done to your reputation?

8. Let’s assume that you are totally clean, as you claim to be. How can you possibly salvage your reputation in the aftermath of the Mitchell Report? And if you or other top stars are not clean, did you ever entertain the thought that full disclosure might actually be in the best interests of baseball, and help the industry to put behind it some of the excesses of the steroid era?

9. Do you believe it compromises the credibility of this interview that I, Mike Wallace, became friends with you after an earlier “60 Minutes” profile and am a frequent guest in George Steinbrenner’s box?

As it turned out, it did mean something. It meant something to the Giants, who ignored local cries to rest the regulars with a playoff game a week away. They attacked New England’s kingdom like few infidels have dared. “It was admirable,” Junior Seau, the Patriots linebacker, said. It meant something to NFL commerce, which dictated that CBS and NBC take the NFL Network’s feed. That, of course, will only triple the public cries to get the Goodell News on the cable systems, and we’ll find out soon if ABC’s “Samantha Who?” thrived in Saturday night’s prime-time vacuum. And even though we all know that the Goal is the Bowl, it meant more to the Patriots than even they suspected.

So Winstrol, Human Growth Hormones and Testosterone Drugs used normally for Horses are the same as spitballs? Shame on the Texas Baseball Coaches Association for poisoning our youth programs by having a Drug Cheat potentially talk to them about conditioning!!!

Even if he didn’t use, Clemens, like all the other baseball players out there knew that other people were. I have been part of that team environment (10 years in the Infantry) and you get to know your team mates better than your children. That’s why none of the players will ever say anything bad about guys everyone knows is cheating. If they call someone out then they will have to explain why the waited so long.

Personally I wouldn’t mind if they reached back 30 years and erased all the records and just started over again. That’s how disgusted I am with the whole thing. Barring that though you really have to wonder if it isn’t better to just say ok that was a bad time, you can look at the stats however you want, we have no choice but to move ahead.

Um, can someone not appreciate a little sarcasm? Gosh, RJ can be as sarcastic(in a witty way, of course) as anyone, but I post a quote meant to take a shot at cheaters and all of the sudden I’m a “moron?” Alas, such is the peril of possessing wit against the unarmed.

“…no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers…will ever play professional baseball.” – from Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s verdict on the players implicated in the Black Sox Scandal in 1919.

Wow, wouldn’t the baseball landscape look much different if THAT kind of justice was still around?

absolute brilliant article on the Texans/ We can only hope that after 6 years journalists and the media might actually hold the franchise that spent 100 million on a roof it opens once a year and opposes any meaningful redevelopment of the astrodome accountable.

Bravo Richard!

How about these questions for Roger. How do explain your record of 6-8 before you were allegedly given steroids in Toronto and your 8-0 record after and then the resurgence in your sputtering career?.

Previoulsy you have credit to your trainer, why attack him now?

Will you take a ;ie detector as it is rumored your accuser allegedly has?

If Canseco donated the proceeds of his book to programs discouraging young athletes from using performance-enhancing drugs, I would probably be inclined to believe some of the names he will name. Otherwise, he’s just looking for another paycheck, and is naming players out of spite or just drawing attention to himself and his book.

I don’t care what Clemens’s fancy trial lawyer brings to the table in the courtroom. The only things that will be discussed in the court will be items regarding physical proof, and it will all come down to Clemens’s word against his former trainer’s. Rusty can talk circles and loopholes all he wants. What it all boils down to is what you believe; and while McNamee may not be able to produce tape recordings or hidden camera footage to attest to Clemens cheating, his word and detailed account are good enough for me. I don’t care if all the evidence is circumstantial, there’s enough of it going around to be convincing. His story on Pettitte was true, and confirmed by Pettitte himself. Why would McNamee be honest about one man and completely untrue about someone else? The short answer to that is he wouldn’t. It should be interesting to hear what Clemens himself has to say in front of a camera and a microphone instead of hiding behind his PR firm and his old pal Rusty.

Dear Roger: Even if you did it, you’re going to the hall of fame. There’s no question about that. So is Barry and anyone else who has the numbers. The public really doesn’t care about this (see attendance figures). Relax, hold on to every single one of those Cy Youngs, and enjoy retirement. You earned it.

The public really doesn’t care about this (see attendance figures). Relax, hold on to every single one of those Cy Youngs, and enjoy retirement. You earned it.

Posted by: Stephen at December 30, 2007 03:24 PM

Nice one Stephen! Perhaps you will have a relative one day trying to emulate Roger and who could possibly do permanent harm to their bodies using this crap. The public “does” care because our children look up to these guys…Clemens did not earn anything – he gained an unfair advantage by shooting illegal drugs up his bum!

These questions are way too easy. I can make up, er I mean answer them for you without even thinking:

1) I don’t know. He’s been a friend. Maybe he felt pressured to give them a big name. My understanding is that by giving the prosecutors a lot of names that he got a lighter sentence. I don’t know. That part wasn’t in the report.

2) I don’t know why he’s lying. I guess that’s what happens when you start with one lie — another one follows. I wouldn’t lie, which is why I’m not lying right now. If I did it, do you think that I’d be standing up here right now lying to you knowing that you’ll search into ever aspect of my life. No way.

3) I don’t know. I guess that the best way to hide a bunch of lies is to throw in some truths.

4) I don’t know. Nobody’s ever told me that they were doing steroids or HGH. The union thought that we had a good deal in place to clear up the game.

5) He was my friend, but as a man, I’m going to do what’s necessary to defend myself and my family. It’s that simple. My kids are getting yelled at by people calling them cheaters. They’ve got nothing to do with this. I’m going to defend my family. As a man, I’m not going to let anyone do this to my family and get away with it.

6) I meant anything within the rules. Nothing more. That question just proves my point. If I were doing this stuff, do you think that I’d just go out and announce it to everyone? Of course not. I’d keep a low profile. I’d never make a statement like that if I were a cheater. But I’m not. You’re question just backs up what I’ve been saying.

7) I’ve told my sons that there are people out there that want to see you fail. That want you to fail. Over the years, I’ve had people call me all sorts of names. They called me a traitor. A couple times I’ve had death threats. It just shows that in this world there are people out to bring you down. I tell my sons that you can’t let them.

8) The most important thing is that my friends and family know that I didn’t and would never do these things. As to the public, we’re looking into our legal options. It’s sad that you can tarnish someone’s lifetime’s worth of achievements without any evidence.

Kenneth wrote: “How about these questions for Roger. How do explain your record of 6-8 before you were allegedly given steroids in Toronto and your 8-0 record after and then the resurgence in your sputtering career?.”

Kenneth: Although the stats you cited above have been bantered about by writers as supportive of McNamee’s allegations against Clemens, I disagree.

Here are some pre ’98 stats for your review:

1984: Began 3-4, finished on a 5-0 run;

1985: Began 3-4, finished on a 4-1 run;

1986 (Cy Young/MVP): Began 14-0, then went 3-4, finished on a 7-0 run (would have been 8-0, but he got an ND while pitching a 9 inning shutout on 9/26/86);

1987 (Cy Young #2): Began 4-6, then went 9-2, and finished on a 7-1 run;

1988: Starter 15-4, finished 3-7 (there is another loss in 1 of these two, just can’t place it now);

1990: Started 11-2, then went 1-3, and finished 9-1;

1991: Started 6-0, then went 6-8, and finished 6-2;

1992: Had a 5-0 and a 6-0 run;

1993: Started 9-6, finished 2-8;

1995: Started 3-4, finished 7-1;

1996: Starter 4-11, finished 6-2;

1997 (Cy Young #3): Starter 11-0, then went 1-3 and 8-1, and finished 1-3.

So my question to you (and I am sincere in this and not meaning to be argumentative or combative) is do you still think that the 6-8 and 8-0 runs in 1998 are indicative of anything?

Justice wrote: “9. Do you believe it compromises the credibility of this interview that I, Mike Wallace, became friends with you after an earlier “60 Minutes” profile and am a frequent guest in George Steinbrenner’s box?”

Richard: So that I understand, are you meaning to say that Mike Wallace lacks the credibility and integrity to interview Roger Clemens on the subject of the Mitchell Report? Although I think that the assertion is silly, it seems to me that this would be a more appropriate question to pose to Wallace. Moreover, as I understand it Clemens will be speaking with reporters after the interview. Seriously, what more would you have Clemens do?

[Those questions came from the Boston Globe's Gordon Edes. I don't know how you read articles, but I generally start at the beginning. My first paragraph was pretty clear in pointing out the questions weren't mine. Interestingly, Charley Casserly taught me a different way to read biographies. Maybe you talked to him, and that's how you read everything. When I was struggling to get through that mammoth

Truman bio, Charley told me he opened the book and began with the portions on FDR's death and Hiroshima. He breezed through the remainder of the book and then cared enough about Truman to go back and read the beginning. I'm not sure if you read this blog post that way, but I didn't come up with a single one of the questions.--Richard]

“8. Let’s assume that you are totally clean, as you claim to be. How can you possibly salvage your reputation in the aftermath of the Mitchell Report?”

This is precisely the reason I believe ‘naming names’ in the Mitchell Report(at least with the lack of “legally credible” evidence as is the case with Clemens) was reckless. Once included in the report I don’t believe there is any way that an athlete, even if completely clean, could ever completely salvage their reputation.

You folks are dreaming if you think that either Barry or Roger gets anywhere close to making it to Cooperstown. I haven’t heard one sportswriter yet who has a Hall vote that is saying that they will vote for Roger. Also, unlike Barry, at the time when Roger (allegedly) began his steroid use, he WAS NOT a lock for the HOF already, unlike Bonds when he began his use.

While Rusty Hardin, Roger et al. thinks that the public is stupid a la the OJ jury, they have to know that vindicating Roger is a lost cause. Anyone who is a former athlete (and is still trying to stay in good physical condition) and is over 40 knows that the way that Barry and Roger were defying Father Time was too good to be true.

One very good reason to get Clemens in the Mitchell report is for the money. At some point in the not so distant future Brian McNamee will have a book or movie deal. It made him a lot more $$$$ to have Clemens implicated in it. I don’t know if Roger did it or not. But I do know Brian McNamee will profit from the Mitchell report in the future.

If there’s one thing Roger Clemens does have, it’s nerve. He’d rather save himself and lie than be honest. Truly a despicable human being…

Oh, and to the first comment (by steelblades)… you’re going to tell me that one can’t live off that $22 million contract that Houston stupidly gave him, alone? That’s more than most people make in a lifetime. The money he’s made in his career is plenty to support his family. He didn’t have to cheat.

Funny how people on here try to attack McNamee…um, yeah, he was grilled by federal agents knowing he would go to jail if he lied and figured he could make money in the future by fabricating things about Clemens – to the tune of 82 PAGES in the report – Are folks that dumb?????

Why isn’t Roger demanding to go in front of Congress and filing a defamation lawsuit against McNamee? Because he would have to testify under oath and he does not want to do that – why???

Are Texans that dumb? Is the Texas Coaches Association that stupid?

Why isn’t Andy Pettite rushing to Roger’s defense? Maybe because his Chrsitian values dictate he not lie! WAKE UP FOLKS!

You folks are dreaming if you think that either Barry or Roger gets anywhere close to making it to Cooperstown. I haven’t heard one sportswriter yet who has a Hall vote that is saying that they will vote for Roger. – Michael

John, the cynical person might say, “Why would JJO vote against anybody who is on the cover of a book he wrote?” Nonetheless, I passed it and “The Rocket” up while Christmas shopping at Barnes & Noble.

2. If you were in McNamee’s position, would you lie to federal investigators, knowing that you were risking jail time if you did?

The Feds are unlikely to turn on their own witness . Besides now Clemens must prove a negative, and that’s very hard to do.

5. Given your one-time regard for McNamee as a trainer and friend, do you approve of the efforts of your lawyer, Rusty Hardin, to do whatever he can to discredit McNamee, even if it means impugning his reputation?

McNamee has already admitted to being a liar because he previously said Clemens was not a steroid user. He was accused of rape. Hence, he really has no reputation to impugn.

Lets be honest everyone. We can speculate all that we want about the Rocket. Did he take steroids? Probably. But maybe not. There is no proof. Mcnamee cannot produce physical evidence that he gave them to Clemens. As far as under oath. I would be willing to bet that alot of people from mafia bosses, to priests a few years back, have lied under oath. Look at Enron. No way that Kenneth Lay and the rest of the crew did not know what was going to happen. He lied under oath. So if you are looking for the bible and raise your right hand routine to bring out the truth in any human with an attorney then you are a bit naive. Leave Clemens, and all the rest of them alone. Bonds was great before steroids. Clemens was great before steroids. Baseball will never have another Nolan Ryan who did it on sheer will. If you dont like whats going on, stop going to games. If not enjoy the game, no matter what happens, and shut up. Remember, that reporters are not neccessary unless they have something to write about. And we all no that most journalists never add a little twist to the truth. Or do they?

Oh come on. Your ‘You cant talk about Roger that way’ is silly. Clemens numbers since he turned 35 are unbelievable. Canseco tossed his name out, Grimsley, and now McNamee. You must at least entertain the remote possibility. Your patriotic proclamations of ‘innocent until proven guilt’ make sense only in a criminal court. I’m going to reach and hold that baseball records probably fall in the civil arena and that ‘more convincing evidence wins’. Remember OJ won his criminal case but lost the civil case. So far, Roger’s side of the story looks more than a bit light. I know he’s your hero, but like unless you’re twelve or under, you gotta at least try to be grownup about this and at least admit that it looks likely that Roger used steroids. Come on, be a big boy. I’m from Houston, Katy no less, and was a Roger fan since he left Boston. But there’s an awful lot of smoke here. I’ve lambasted Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Gonzalez, Palmerio, etc, why should I shy off Clemens? You want a hero? Pick Frank Thomas – the baseball union practically had to pull him out of the doctor’s office to keep him from getting tested for steroids. To those who think I should just shut up if I enjoy the game, I’ve no intentions of shutting up. While I agree with you premise to vote with one’s ticket purchases, I don’t agree that I need to sit idly by while MLB burns. Steroids taints the game; I don’t like it, so I’ll whine as much as I like. Now let me get up on my high horse. Trickle-down steroid usage by kids buying from the local steroids pusher probably ain’t the safest thing in the world, so I’m going to say, hang ‘em high. Just my two cents worth.